The New Building
I was lucky enough to receive an email from Fiona Duggan the other day containing this image of the latest plans for the new college building.
As you can see the outside is constructed of tesselating tiles. Fiona told me that the price of this outside shell actually constitutes for half the price of the new building. I naturally thought that these tiles would have been combined with the vast quantities of photovoltaic products that are currently on the market, but it appears otherwise.
Photovoltaic technology uses solar energy to generate heat and electricity, and doesn't even need direct sunlight, it uses the radiation of the light. I found a concise (though poorly designed) PDF that gives a brief but informative introduction to solar energy and PV technology here.
The implementation of these technologies would massively increase the price of the new build but there are 2 points that need to be considered. Primarily, most of the buildings that have implemented this new power option actually feed power back to the national grid, and receive payment for their contribution, and subsequently make back their initial investment in a short period of time. Secondly the image it would project to the rest of the world would be priceless. Showing the rest of the world that these technologies are available and they work.
I think that as a design college, Ravensbourne needs to accept it's responsibility and practice what it's preaching. Look to the future, push the boundaries and challenge everyone elses way of thinking.
As you can see the outside is constructed of tesselating tiles. Fiona told me that the price of this outside shell actually constitutes for half the price of the new building. I naturally thought that these tiles would have been combined with the vast quantities of photovoltaic products that are currently on the market, but it appears otherwise.
Photovoltaic technology uses solar energy to generate heat and electricity, and doesn't even need direct sunlight, it uses the radiation of the light. I found a concise (though poorly designed) PDF that gives a brief but informative introduction to solar energy and PV technology here.
The implementation of these technologies would massively increase the price of the new build but there are 2 points that need to be considered. Primarily, most of the buildings that have implemented this new power option actually feed power back to the national grid, and receive payment for their contribution, and subsequently make back their initial investment in a short period of time. Secondly the image it would project to the rest of the world would be priceless. Showing the rest of the world that these technologies are available and they work.
I think that as a design college, Ravensbourne needs to accept it's responsibility and practice what it's preaching. Look to the future, push the boundaries and challenge everyone elses way of thinking.
= Podcast
2 Comments:
no offence, but that looks awful!
What's with the retail? Who in their right mind will have a shop there? Is it so that the college don't have to have a college shop and students will have to go into central London to buy a mini disk? I suppose it wouldn't be any different to what it is now then, hey?
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